Sun 29 Sep 2019
Scorers: Abi Markillie (2 tries), Jessie Owers (2 tries), Emily Hay
Cambridge U15 Girls approached their National Girls Cup game on Sunday with some apprehension, the nerves very apparent for the opening game of the season as they doubted themselves, their ability and their preparation for the game, heavy rain delayed the start to the warmup where some hastily organised tackling training, a quick run through passing by the forwards and backs and a chat about the approach to the game and we were off.
Harwich & Dovercourt kicked off the game with the ball landing in space in front of the backs, Scarlett was the first to react and made some inroads into the H&D defence before laying the ball back for Hattie and Chloe and Abi to make further ground before the ball was moved left to the Cambridge backs, Annabelle and Jessie passing the ball out to Scarlet and Emily combining nicely in the centres, making ground and finding Holly for a trademark dash on the wing only to be hauled down by the fast covering defence. The resulting knock on giving possession to H&D, the Cambridge defence coped well and after several phases managed to turn over possession after a tackle, Cambridge now made more ground going forwards with Ellie N and Ellie S in the second row doing good work recycling the ball for Emily to again take the opposition defence on and make ground, from a ruck Jessie now found herself in space at fly half and capitalised by rounding the defence and sprinting from the half way line feeding the ball to Holly who ran almost to the opposition try line, after being tackled just short a penalty was awarded for not releasing the tackled player, quick thinking from Annabelle saw the ball tapped and Abi darted over the line for the first try. 5-0 to Cambridge.
Having made the breakthrough Cambridge were instantly on the front foot from the kickoff when Jessie made a neat sidestep and sprinted clear of the covering defenders to score from her own 22 line, 10-0 to Cambridge. Harwich & Dovercourt now managed to recover their composure and scored a well taken try down the left wing, the first attack was rebuffed by Lauren with a great tackle that took the players into touch, but having left the field for treatment from the collision the same winger had another go, this time successful, the score too wide for the conversion attempt, 10-5 to Cambridge. From the restart Emily kicked long and good Cambridge defence turned over possession in the opposition half which found its way again to Abi who again proved to fast and strong to stop in front of the posts, 15-10 to Cambridge. The half was coming to a close but Harwich & Dovercourt were not finished as they took the ball through the middle of the Cambridge defence and scored close to the posts, the conversion successful, 15-12 to Cambridge at half time.
In the second half Harwich & Dovercourt had a lot more of the ball and Cambridge Rubies needed determined defence to keep them out, constant changes were being made to the Cambridge team due to the opposition fielding 13 players, this meant the Cambridge forwards were rotating on and off with substitutes and interchanging with backs due to injuries (nothing serious), the disruption to the team formation was a good challenge for the girls to overcome, and determined tackling from Bibi, Sheetal and Georgina meant the Rubies were protecting their lead until a rapid break on the left hand side saw the H&D hattrick scorer break clear to score and well taken try, 15-17 to H&D. However the belief in the Cambridge team was strong and Emily made a determined break on the right to finish in the corner with two defenders on her back, 20-17 to Cambridge. Soon after Cambridge were again applying pressure and Jessie playing now at scrum half skipped through a gap and touched down under the posts, 25-17 to Cambridge.
The dying minutes of the game saw a determined Harwich & Dovercourt team, minus a player through injury, playing their best rugby of the game running the ball from everywhere and finally succeeding in breaking the Cambridge defence to score under the posts, the conversion successful to take the game to 25-24 to Cambridge. Two minutes to go, and after two scrums, one to each team, from handling errors with Cambridge making ground, and with a further scrum signalled the whistle was blown for the end of the match.
The game was a great credit to all of the players involved from both teams, lots of skill, commitment and teamwork on show on a wet day in difficult conditions. Cambridge probably just deserved the win for how well they kept and used possession to score a bonus point try, but the result could have gone either way.
